A Rural Blog that provides views & insights from a Conservative Georgia Democrat

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Georgia Redistricting Maps are Out!

The Senate Maps aren't bad. I don't see any legal challenges coming towards this map.

In the proposed State Senate Map, George Hooks (D-Americus) is drawn out of SD 14 into Freddie Powell Sims (D-Dawson) SD 12 district, which will pit the two one on one in a primary in 2012. The Northern Portion of SD 14 is now being taken by Ed Harbison (D-Columbus). Sumter County is split into two Senate with eastern Sumter now in John Crosby's SD 15 seat as well as democratic leaning county Dooly.

Harbison who is approaching 70 years old now has the counties of Macon, Schley, Tayor, Marion & Talbot to contend with. The new district is now solidly democratic, but don't expect Harbison to coast towards re-election (if he decides to seek in in 2012). I expect other democrats to challenge for the seat in 2012.

Now if there's one district that could see a challenge its SD 23 held by Jesse Stone (R-Waynesboro). The new district loses Washington, Wilkinson Counties & picks up McDuffie & Warren County & a tiny sliver of southern Columbia County. The Columbia County portion could be challenged by democrats because it wraps around Richmond County. But if it does, I expect it to stand legal challenges. One thing that's noticable: The city of Blythe, which is the home of J.B. Powell & Chuck Pardue are now in Hardie Davis Senate District. Clever move by the GOP.

SD 26 becomes more democratic & it increases in Black Voting Population with the inclusion of Hancock & Washingtom & more of Jones County

SD 25 held by Johnny Grant becomes more republican which now takes in southern Walton County & the city of Social Circle.

The proposed house districts is where all the fuss is located. One of the big GOP talking points was that they wanted to keep communities in tact...........WELL, so much for that!

In some of these districts, the minority population is diluted or "weakened" & some counties such as Ware is split into three different districts.

The 10 incumbent pairings, six with two Democrats paired and four with two Republicans paired, are:

1. Ely Dobbs (D-Atlanta) and Sheila Jones (D-Atlanta)

2. Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta) and Rashad Taylor (D-Atlanta)

3. Simone Bell (D-Atlanta) and Ralph Long (D-Atlanta)

4. Stephanie Benfield (D-Atlanta) and Howard Mosby (D-Atlanta)

5. Elena Parent (D-Atlanta) and Scott Holcomb (D-Atlanta)

6. Mack Jackson (D-Sandersville) and Sistie Hudson (D-Sparta)

7. Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert) and Bob Hanner (R-Parrott)

8. Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville) and Gene Maddox (R-Cairo)

9. Chuck Sims (R-Ambrose) and Tommy Smith (R-Nicholls)

10. Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross) and Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine)

There are 49 total majority minority districts.

There are open majority minority districts in Valdosta, parts Fulton and Fayette, Douglas, parts DeKalb and Rockdale, parts DeKalb and Gwinnett, and parts Gwinnett and Hall.

As crapy as the proposed House Map is, its very likely that it will pass the legislature, with the POSSIBILITY of minor changes to a few districts. Democrats have to realize when you only have 63 members in your ranks, there's basically nothing you can do about it except raise hell over it & hope that citizens who live in these districts disapprove of the way they are drawn. The Dems main concern is over the metro Atlanta seats. Very little or no mention of Rural Georgia & this shows how far apart rural conservative democrats & liberal urban/suburban democrats are in this state.

Enough of all this talk about "We are all in this together"! That's not true & never have been since the late 1980s/1990s.

The main goal of the Georgia GOP is to solidify the Georgia Democratic Party as the Minority Party made up of Blacks, Latinos, Gays, with liberal whites as the icing on the cake,along with far-left special interest groups! They are close to making it a reality.

And the current reality is that the Georgia Democratic Party has become the mirror image of the National Democratic Party, dominated by liberal pols who aren't what you called Georgia Born. And once they did that, moderate/conservative democrats said "ITS TIME TO HAUL ASS FROM HERE" except for a few!

And one more thing, these new maps hopefully will force the State Party to get back to its roots, the party of Georgia & not trying to be like its national counterparts. Its a recipe for disaster!